Printing telegraph apparatus



Jan. 4, 1944. 3.}. MADSEN 2,338,122

PRINTING TELEGRAPH APPARATUS Original Filed April 20, 1938 :lllllllllllh INVENTOR. BERTHEL F. MADSEN Patented Jan. 4, 1944 rnm'rma TELEGRAPH APPARATUS I ,'Berthel F. Madsen, Chicago, Ill., assignor to'Teletype Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of I Delaware Original application April 20, 1938, Serial No. 203,021., Divided and this application June 14, 1941:, Serial No. 398,081

12 Claims.

This invention relates to printing telegraph apparatus, and particularly to printing telegraph apparatus in which the characters are printed in page formfrom type elements carried upon the periphery of a rotatable and selectively arrestable type carrier.

This application is a division of copending ap plication, Serial No, 203,021, filed April 20, 1938, by Berthel F. Madsen, which has matured into Patent No. 2,284,666, issued June 2, 1942.

- An object of this invention resides in the provision, in a printing telegraph receiving unit embodying a selectively rotatable type wheel which is shiitable into and out of printing position to afford visibility, of 'instrumentalities for controlling shifting of the type wheel and for arresting it at various elevational positions relative to the printing, level.

In Patent No. 2,296,874, granted September 29, 1942, to Albert H. Reiber, there is'disclosed a type wheel printer with reference to which the present invention stands as an improvement. According to the disclosure of that application, the

type wheel is slidably supported upon the type wheel shaft by a framewhich may occupy either of two positions and may be shifted'to either one orthe other of the two positions under the control of the case shift mechanism for aligning either of two rows of type elements carried by the type wheel with the level at which printing is to be effected. When the type wheel has been shifted to a given position by the shiftingof the supporting frame. it remains in that position until the case shiftsignal assigned to the shifting of the type wheel to its'other position has been received and rendered effective.

According to the present invention, the type mal position of the frame being such that the entire type wheel is held below the level at which control of a cam. The amount of movement imparted to the type wheel in elevating it to printing position is controlled by a leverage mechanism'which is in turn under control 01' the shift andlunshift function mechanism of the receiving unit, so that the function mechanism, instead of shifting the type wheel to the desired position as in the disclosure in the hereinbefore mentioned copending application merely operatesto determine th height to which the typewheel is to be elevated. The type wheel elevating mechanism includes a lost motion leverage assembly so that the type wheel may be arrested short of its uppermost position while permittin the elevating cam and part or the elevating mechanism to operate as though imparting full movement to the type wheel. This mechanism operating under wheel is movable axially of the type wheel shaft I and is supported by a shiftable frame, the norprinting isto be effected so that a line which is being printed, including the last character, shall be visible For each cycl of operation of the receiving unit, the type 'wheel'supporting frame is oscillated so as to bring the type wheel into printing position'before the printing operation occurs and to restore'it to normal position after theprinting of a character has been accomplished. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the type wheel supporting frame is moved by'a cam to bring the type wheel into printing positionbefore the printing operation and is restored to normal position under the control of the shift and unshift function mechanism prepares the leverage mechanism to shift the type wheel to either of its' elevated positions when the actuating cam therefor operates the main portion of the leverage mechanism.

The disclosure of the aforementioned patent v to A. H. Reiber reveals that the transfer operation, by which the code discs of a code disc selector are set in accordance with a new signal combination and the type wheel is released for rotation to a new position of arrestment corresponding to the transferred signal, is performed by a cam included in a cam assembly which also includes the cam for performing the printing operation. The printing operation-1s timed to precede the transfer, the reason for this being that the interval of time which it is desirable to allot to the rotation of the type wheelto a new position of arrestment might be longer than the interval of time between the transfer operation and the end of the cycle of the cam assembly which includes the transfer and printing cams,'s o that the-printing operation would not be timed to be performed before the end of the cycle in which the transfer occurs. Consequently,

the print operation is timed to occur substantial ly immediately after the beginning of the next cycle of operation of the'cam assembly and the result is, as described in the copending application, that the printer comes to rest with asignal combination stored in the code disc selector mechanism which would not be cleared out. until the next cycle of operation of the cam assembly. If the signal combination which is storeclrepresents the last character of a message, it is necessary to introduce an idle operation of the printer in order to print'the character for the selection of which the type wheel has been'rotated in response to the signal combination stored in the code disc selector.

According to the present invention, as described in detail in the afore-mentioned patent to Berthel F. Madsen of which this application is a division, the cam which controls the printing operation has been removed from the cam assembly which "includes the transfer cam and has according to one embodiment, been included in a separate cam assembly carried by a shaft separate from that which supports the transfer cam assembly, and according to another embodiment has been included in a cam assembly which is carried by the same shaft that carries the transfer cam assembly but which is independently driven. The latter embodiment is disclosed in two variations, in one of which the operating cycle of the printing cam may occur almost entirely after the transfer cam has reached the arrest position, which is true of the embodiment employing the two driving shafts, and in the other of which the cycle. of the printing cam. may lag behind the transfer cam by only a relatively small fraction of a cyclic interval.

Certain of the features of the invention disclosed in the present disclosure and in the patent of which the present disclosure is a division, but not claimed herein or in said patent from which the present application is divided, are also disdisclosure of the afore-mentioned patent to BerthelF. Madsen and of which the present application is a division, shows a schematic elevational view of a portion of a printing telegraph apparatus and illustrates particularly the details of the mechanism for effecting shift and unshift functional operations of the apparatus.

Referring to the drawing, it will be observed, that the shaft I I, which may correspond to shaft 3I1 in Fig. 4 of the afore-mentioned patent to Berthel F. Madsen supports a cam sleeve I2 which may be clutch driven as in Fig. 4 thereof and which has secured thereto type wheel elevating cam I3 and printing'cam I4. A first-class lever I5 mounted on a pivot stud Itcarries a cam follower roller I1 for engagement with the type wheel elevating cam I3. Also pivoted on the stud I5 is a third-class lever I8 which is articulated to type wheel supporting frame I9 pivoted intermediate its ends on a stud 26 and is normally urged to rock about the stud in a clockwise direction by a contractile spring 21. Adjacent the lower end of the printing bail 25, there is formed thereon a projection 28 which is adapted to engage the periphery of the print cam I4. Above the projection 28, the bail 25 is provided with a projection 29 which abuts the end of a spring pressed plunger when bail 25 is in normal position. Plunger 30 operates as a yieldable stop which opposes spring 21 when'bail 25 is in rest position, and holds the free end of the print hammer 24 out of the path of the type pallet of type wheel 23. In the rest condition of the printing apparatus there is a gap between projection 28 on the printing bail 25 and the periphery of print cam I4. This gap permits bail 25 and print hammer 24 t0 overtravel sufilciently to actuate a type pallet. Cam I4 is rotatable in a clockwise direction and as it rotates it imparts counterclockwise movement to the bail 25 thus retracting the print hammer 24 from the normal position and distending the spring 21. The dropoff of cam I4 from maximum to minimum radius is extremely sharp and .when projection 28 of bail 25 encounters this drop-off, bail 25 is released and spring 21 rocks bail 25 sharply in clockwise direction. Due to the inertia of bail 25 and print hammer 24, they overtravel to operate a selected type pallet and effect printing therefrom. In overtraveling, bail 25 depresses plunger 30 which in turn compresses its spring slightly. As soon as the energy of bail 25 and print hammer 24 has been expended, plunger 30 restores bail 25,

to normal position by rocking it slightly in counterclockwise direction.

Print bail 25 is provided with a depending finger 3| in the path of overtravel of which is disposed the upper end of a latch 32. The latch 32 is pivoted on a pin 33 and is urged to rock in a clockwise direction by a spring 34. Latch 3-2 has a shoulder 35 formed on it for engagement with a laterally extending arm 35 formed integrally with the first-class lever l5 to latch the lever I5 in its counterclockwise position in the interval between the camming of the lever to that position and the printing interval or the interval when the printing bail 25 is actuated release of the laterally extending arm 36,

by shoulder 35 on lever 32, under the action of the printing bail 25, the first-class lever I5 will be rocked clockwise about its stud It. It will be apparent from this that substantially at the instant that printing is efiected latch 32 is tripped and spring 22 is enabled to restore the type wheel lifting frame I9 to its lowermost position immediately and without supervisory control by the which is in turn slidable on a stud 20, there being down out of association with a platen, not shown; I

but positioned similarly to the platen in the store-mentioned patent to Berthel F. Madsen of whichthe present application is a division.

Positioned for cooperation with the type wheel a: a a printing hammer :4 which is articulated to a printing bail 25. The printing bail 25 is cam I3.

The third-classlever I8, intermediate its ends. pivotally supports a latch 45 which is spring biased in a counterclockwise direction. Latch 45 is provided'with an undercut portion engageable by the right-hand end of the first-class lever I5. When latch 45 is engaging-the end of lever I5 and the lever is rocked in a counterclockise direc-- tion by cam I3, the third-class lever I3 is rocked in clockwise direction through the same angular distance as lever I5 to effect the elevation of the type wheel 23 to its uppermost position.

' When, however, latch 45 is rocked in a clockwise direction to disengage it iroxrrthc end of the lever 15, the-lever l may rock in counterclockwise direction without imparting rotation to lever 18 until lever l5 comes into engagement with an abutment pin 46 carried by lever l8. After coming into engagement with pin 46 lever l5.will impart rotation in'counterclockwise direction to third-class lever l8, but the distance through which lever l8 will be rocked will be less than the distance through which lever l5 was rocked, the difference resulting from the lost motion which lever l5 undergoes in order to come into engagement with pin 46 and, therefore, the type wheel 23 will be elevated a lesser distance than it is when latch 45 is engaging lever l5, the type wheel thus being elevated to position for printing from the upper row of type pallets.

The caseshift control mechanism for controlling the effectiveness of first-class lever $5 in elevating the type wheel 23 to its printing position is controlled in a manner similar to hat disclosed in the afore-mentioned patent to Berthel F. Madsen, in that shift and unsnift function bars 41 and 48, respectively, control the height to which the type wheel 23 will be elevated to effect printing in upper or lower case characters.

Function levers 49 and 50 are pivotally mounted so as to be capable of operation of the lever54. The lower end of the lever 54 has a laterally extending projection 58 which is adapted to engage the upwardly extending end of the latch 45 when'the lever 54 is moved to its counterclockwise position (the opposite position 7 to that shown). When the lever 54 is rocked to its counterclockwise position, the projection 58 strikes the latch 45 and disengages it from the end of first-class lever l5 and when the cam l3 rocks lever-l5, the first portion of its rocking movement will be idle until the right end of lever I 5 engages the pin 46 whereupon'the lever I5 and the third-class lever It will then n iove as a unit. If, however, the levers 49 and 50are set in the position shown and locked in that position by the detent 55 engaging the upward end of the lever 54 and holding it in the position shown, the lever 15 upon being rocked by the cam l3 will immediately carry the third-class lever l8 with it due to the interconnection of the lever l8 and the lever I 5 by means of the latch 45.

In the operation of the apparatus, the receipt of a shift signal will cause the shift function bar 48 -to be moved to theright, thereby to rock the function lever 50 to the position shown. When the function lever 50 is rocked to the position shown, it will rock lever 54 to its clockwise position as shown, andfirst-classlever l5 in following the contour of cam l3 will engage the sloping face of latch to move latch 45 in a clockwise direction against the action of its biasing spring wheel will be elevated to its highest position due to the action of cam l3 on roller l'l moving the first-class lever 55 and the third-class lever l8 as a unit, thereby to carry the type wheel to its uppermost position.

Upon the receipt of a signal indicating unshift, the unshift function bar 41 will be shifted to the right as described in the hereinbefore mentioned patent to Barthel F. Madsen and function lever 49 will therefore berocked to the right or in acounterclockwise direction by the function bar 41 to move lever 54 out of the notch. 56 and into the notch 57. In moving from the position shown to th counterclockwise position, or the position where the upward end thereof engages in the notch 51, lever 54 will rock function lever 50 in a clockwise direction, thus resetting lever 56 for the receipt of a shift signal. Similarly, when the function lever 5! is selected, its projection 53 rocks latching lever 54 in a clockwise direction thereby causing the latch lever 43 to engage the projection 52 of function lever 49 to return lever 49 to its original position in readiwheel supporting frame l9 will be moved againstthe action of spring 22 to carry the type wheel 23 to the lower of its two-elevated positions.

I It should be noted that while spring 31 nor-. mally urges the lever l5 to rock in a clockwise direction to hold the cam follower roller I! in engagement with the surface contour of cam l3, that the roller I1 does not always engage the cam l3,-but that leverl5 upon being rocked to its farthest counterclockwise position by cam l3 will be latched in that position due to the action of .latch 32 engaging its shoulder 35 with the laterally extending arm 36 on lever l5. By

this means, the type wheel 23 will be held in its uppermost position until the printing ball 25 is actuated by its spring 21 upon alignment of projection 28 on bail 25 with the drop-off of cam l4. Thus immediately, after printing is effected by the print hammer 24, the portion or finger 3| of printing bail 25 will strikethe upper extending end of latch 32 and disengage the shoulder 35 of latch 32 from the laterally extending arm 36 0n lever l5 thereby to permit the spring 31 to move the cam follower roller l1 into engagement with the surface of cam I 3.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been described hereinbefore it will be understood that numerous modifications and adaptations thereof. may be made without departing from. the invention which is to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a able type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidablymounted, a frame for supporting said type wheel, means for lifting said-frame until the lever l5 has moved its right end under a the latching portion of latch 45 as shown in the drawing. Upon the receipt of a character indibefore each'printing operation and for lowering said frame after each printing operation, means associated with said frame having a fixed element and a movable element engageable by said lifting means to move said frame to different levels dependent on the element engaged, pivotally mounted means, means controlling the position of said pivotally mounted means-whererotattion. 5. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotat- :ing said type wheel, a power actuated lever-for lifting said frame before each printing operation and for lowering said frame after each printing operation, a lever articulated to said frame and having a movable element and a fixed element lever for elevating said frame to different levels dependent on the element engaged, means operable under predetermined circumstances for enabling the engagement of said movable element 'by said power actuated lever and under other predetermined circumstances for moving said movable element out of position with respect to or for disabling said latch, fixed means on said selectively engageable by said power actuated-- said power actuated lever whereby said power actuated lever engages said fixed element, and means for selectively operating said means.

3. In aprinting telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidably positioned, a frame for supporting said type wheel, a pivoted lever for elevating said frame, a power actuated lever, a latch on said pivoted lever for latching said lever to the power actuated lever to enable said power actuated lever to raise said frame to a predetermined level, selectively actuatable means for rendering said latch effective or ineffective, and means on said first mentioned lever to engagement by said power actuated lever w en said latch is rendered ineffective to enable said power v 4. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type articulated lever engageable by said primary lever upon the disablement of said latch to enable said primary lever to move said articulated lever to another predetermined position, and a pair of function levers alternately operable for controlling the operation of said selectively operable means. 1 v

7. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidable, a frame for supporting said type wheel, a lever articulated to said frame for moving said type wheel-to different typing levels, a primary lever for actuating said articulated lever, a latch for connecting said levers for en abling said primary lever to move said articulated lever to a predetermined position, a pair of function control means, means operated by said control means for rendering said latch effective 'or for disabling said latch, and fixed means on position.

8. In a printing telegraph'apparat'us, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type' I wheel is slidable, a frame for supporting said wheel is slidable, a frame for supporting said type wheel, a lever articulated to said frame for moving said type wheel to different positions, a primary lever for actuating said articulated lever, a latch for connecting said levers to enable said primary lever to move said articulated lever to a predetermined position, selectively operated means for enabling the operation of said latch and for disabling said latch, and fixed means on said articulated lever engageable by the primary lever upon'the disablement of said latchto enable said primary lever to move said articulated lever to another predeterminedposiable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidable, a frame -forsupporting said type wheel, a lever articulated to said frame for moving said type wheel to different typing levels, a primary lever for actuating said articulated lever, a latch for connecting the first and second levers'to enable said primary lever to move said articulated lever to a predetermined position, selectively operable means for rendering said latch'efl'ective and for disabling said latch, fixed means on said articulated lever engageable by said primary lever upon disablement of said latch to enable said primary lever to move said articulated lever to another predetermined position, and a pair of unidirectionally movable levers for controlling the operation of said selectively operable means. I

6. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidable, a frame for supporting said type wheel, means for elevating said type wheel supporting frame to either of two positions including a lever assembly including two levers having a common pivot and interconnectable in either of two different relative positions to enable said lever assembly to move said type wheel supporting frame to different typing levels, and means to effect the selective interconnection of said levers.

9. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidable, a frame for supporting said type wheel, means for elevating said type wheel sup porting frame to either of two positions comprising a lever assembly including two levers having a common pivot and interconnectable in either of two different relative positions, one of said levers being articulated to said frame, a pair of function bars, a function bar controlled latch for interconnecting the leversin one of said relative positions,'a pin for interconnecting the levers in the other of said relative positions,

and means selectively operated foroperating said function bars to render said latch effective or ineffective whereby the interconnection will either be through said latch or said pin.

' 10. In a printing telegraph apparatus, a rotatable type wheel, a shaft upon which said type wheel is slidabie, a frame for supporting said type wheel, and means for elevating said type wheel supporting frame to either of two positions comprising a lever assembly including two levers having a common pivot and interconnectable in either of two different relative positions,

one of said levers being articulated to said frame. -a latch on one of said two levers relatively entwollevers to interconnect the two levers in the other of said two relative positions.

11. In aprinting telegraph apparatus, a type member, a supporting means therefor, means for lifting said supporting means, means associated with said supporting means having a fixed ele-' ment and a movable element against either of which said lifting means is'engageable to raise said supporting means to difierent levels dependent onthe element engaged, means to determine the'particular element with which said lifting means will be in engagement whereby said supporting means is raised to predetermined typing levels, and selectively operated means for controlling the position oi said determining means. 4

12. In a case shift device, a type carrying member movable to either or two positions, means for elevating said type carrying member, power means for operating said elevating means, a fixed and a movable element associated with said elevating means, means for determining whether said power means will engage said fixed element or said movable element to move said elevating means to difierent predetermined positions, and means to operate said determining means selectively to-render said power means BERTHEL F. MADSEN.

element. 

